Esperanza Rising (Scholastic Gold)
**CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN PRINT!**
A modern classic for our time and for all time―this beloved, award-winning bestseller resonates with fresh meaning for each new generation. Perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Rita Williams-Garcia.
Esperanza Rising joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!
Pura Belpre Award Winner
* "Readers will be swept up." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
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Community Reviews
I didn't care for Esperanza much as a character, which worried me a bit during the first half of the book. I worried that this would be a typical spoiled-brat-gets-humbled-coming-of-age tale. Esperanza does start out as a spoiled brat and does end up as something different, but her personal story becomes less and less the focal point of a larger story - this is both nice for the reader and representative of Esperanza's growth. Her sense of self-importance deflates, but then reforms with an improved awareness of her connectedness to others. Esperanza's story becomes interesting because of its context - the historically accurate portrayal of the California agriculture industry during the Dust Bowl/Depression era, and the other characters (generally more likeable than Esperanza) who become important to her survival.
This could be a great read to supplement social studies instruction in civil rights movements. I, for one, did not realize that farm workers were organizing and striking for better conditions so long before Cesar Chavez came onto the scene. I also do not recall learning about the Deportation Act of 1929, which I now know forced hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans into "repatriation" to Mexico without due process - deporting not only Mexican workers who had entered the country illegally, but also those who entered legally, and even American citizens in no small numbers.
Make sure to read the Author's Note at the end. It helped to provide even more context and made me curious enough to do some light research on the setting of the story.
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